Spring has sprung

Headed down to Piedmont Park to take some pictures...

Easter

Sorry to take so long in posting...

I hosted Thanksgiving this year for 12.  That's a lot for a sit down dinner!  Fortunately, my Aunt Susie was co-hosting.  She did the ham and I did the lamb.  The lamb was a first for me so, of course, I don't have any pictures of it.  I also made the traditional deviled eggs.  I made my calculation as 3 deviled eggs per person.  But when I got to the store, I purchased 3 eggs per person.  We had a lot of deviled eggs left over and everyone took some home.  Here are some pictures...

Before my helper showed up.

All my tables are too heavy to move alone.

Cousin John, my assistant

Getting set

Too many eggs!!

Got 'em done anyway.

Everyone digging in

Success! Now to get my plate...

Everybody's Pizza

Everybody's Pizza is a 40+ year institution of Emory's campus and it closes its doors forever next Tuesday.  My parents and I made one last pilgrimage to get our pizza faces on.

It was a very rainy Monday night and when we arrived, the power was out and had been for over an hour.  The very nice hostess asked if we would like to sit down for a drink, but had no guarantees about when/if power and food service would resume.  We said, "Sure!" and got a nice corner table.  It was eerily quiet as all the kitchen noise, music and tv sound we gone.  I ordered a Lovely Day (gin, grapefruit, bitters) and, presto!, the power came back on!  (not really but that would have been really cool)  The power did return, to a rousing round of applause, shortly after us sitting and perusing the menu.

Sadly, I think the best part of the meal was the atmosphere.  We were reminded why we hadn't eaten there in the last 15 years.  The food is decent, but the pizza at Mellow Mushroom is far superior.  Oh well, I guess we won't have to ever eat there again...

OTP

For those who are not familiar with Atlanta lingo, OTP means Outside The Perimeter.  And the perimeter is Hwy 285 that circles Atlanta and is a beast to navigate the traffic.  I very rarely have any reason to cross that line.  That being said, a couple times a year it happens.

Saturday, we trekked out to Lilburn, GA to pick up my/my dad's 1971 VW Beetle from one of the only repair shops willing to work on them.  But the planning immediately got tricky-- too many cars and not enough drivers.  I was in my Jetta, my dad was in his Highlander, and my mom doesn't drive any more.  My uncle Dan was supposed to join us, but he got held up at home on a different matter.  And Peter lives in Lilburn which is not at all close to the house where the Beetle is going.  Dilemma.  For starters, we put my Dad in the Beetle, Peter in the Highlander, and my mom and me in the Jetta and got all cars to Peter's house (Peter also has 3 cars of his own).  Then Dan and Susie arrived, in another car.  So to get everybody back home, me in the Jetta, Susie in Dan's Acura, Dan and my mom in the Highlander, my Dad in the Beetle, and Peter stays home.  The amount of time used to come up with this arrangement was ridiculous.

In the mean time, we decided to get dinner.  But first, a tour of Peter's house.  A house tour for me involves the rooms and furnishings.  A house tour of Peter's house for Uncle Dan involves toys.  Lots and lots of toys.  Peter is a car collector.  He has rooms and rooms of model cars, trucks, a bedroom of airplane models, a wall of car medallions, and rooms (yes, plural) of car literature.  Dan was in heaven!

Boys of any age and toys

The rest of us were mostly hungry.  So we hung out with cats.

Muldoon

After about an hour, we were fed up (or not litterally) and forced the boys out of the basement of more toys to go to dinner.  The options in Lilburn are limited and Peter's recommendations were Chili's or Red Lobster.  Fortunately, after pressing him, he recommended a small, noisy restaurant called 3 Blind Mice.  Normally, with a group of 6 at 7pm on a Saturday, we expected a wait.  But they had the one large table ready for us.  And in a quiet corner!  Sometimes it all works out.

3 Blind Mice reminded me strongly of the Hayes Valley version of Citizen Cake.  The banquet tables, bar, and menu were very similar.  The style of the menu was very northern Cali, but unfortunately, the actual food did not live up to its promise.  It was all fine, but I was expecting excellence.  The winter soup and short ribs came in as the best, but my crab cakes and the scallops and the brussels sprouts disappointed.  Ah well, I wasn't going to be driving back out there just for dinner anyway.  We had good company and good dinner conversation.

After dinner, we all piled into our various car assignments and trudged back to civilization (oops!  Sorry Peter, I mean back to ITP).  Whew, made it home safe and sound.

After Party

Not as glamorous as it sounds.  Or maybe it was.  After the wedding, I had two and a half days to do nothing.  And by nothing, I mean sit around the beach or pool drinking beer and mojitos on Mexican time (Friday, I took off my watch and was on Mexican time after.)  So there is some glamour in there.

Saturday (pre-wedding).  Breakfast on the beach.  Nap on the beach.  Pool time.  And then awesomeness--Karen couldn't sleep the second night of club-thumping beats, so she got us moved into Porto Playa in the condo right next to our friends in the penthouse!  Thanks Karen!  More pool time.  Wedding.  Dance club.  Sleep.

Sunday.  Breakfast on the beach.  Nap on the beach.  Lunch at a Venezuelan cafe on Constitution--it's the one with the green awning--fabulous!  Nap at the pool.  Mojito at the pool.  Beer at the pool.  Quick run to the Mega Mart.  BBQ at the penthouse.  Yes, my friends rented the 3-story penthouse with roof deck (hot tub, grill, and large cabana) and private access to the pool.  Party.  Sing-a-long to "Man in the Mirror" that was commented upon by neighbors the next day.  Sleep.

side note:  On Sundays in Mexico, you cannot buy alcohol after 5pm.  Our run to the store happened at 6 so the party was limited to whatever was on hand.  With our friends, it was enough...

Monday.  Breakfast on the beach.  Nap on the beach.  Beer at the pool.  Bart invents the pedia-colada (vodka and soda with a splash of coconut flavored pedialyte, surprisingly tasty).  Goodbyes at the pool <sniff>.  Great to see everyone, hard to say goodbye.  But I was still in Mexico so, beer at the pool.  Nap at the pool.  Lunch at Agua Chiles an Constitution, finally, some great tacos!  Back to the pool.  People were dropping like flies, sick or gone home so there were only 4 of us (Wonder, AG, Meg and me) for dinner.  We strolled 5th and Wonder picked out the Mosquito Bar for dinner.  It was pricy Italian and fantastic.  I had some of the best lasagne ever.  Our table was on the street so we waved to other wedding guests as they walked by.  Some sat and talked and dinner took us 3 hours.  It might have taken longer but the restaurant closed at midnight.  Sleep.

Tuesday.  Last day!  Breakfast on the beach.  Kind of hazy so pool time.  Pack.  Taxi to airport.  Customs--they scanned my backpack 4 times and searched twice.  I have no idea what they were looking for.  And home.  If it wasn't for my dog, I would have wanted to stay.  But Iggy love is priceless and worth coming home to every time.

side note: ATL international might arrive at E, but customs is at F and you have to walk there.  It is about a mile.  This is the last thing you want to do coming back from vacation.  And have your ride waiting there, not back at North/South.

Lydia and Dave's Wedding

And the reason that we all gathered in Mexico--

It was a beautiful ceremony.  There was not much beach so we had to stand behind the families.  And there were lots of beach walkers that stopped to check it out.  And everyone in the ceremony got their feet wet.  The bride was holding up her dress for a little bit.  Very cute and it wouldn't be a good wedding unless something went wrong.

After, the light was so perfect, I opened a brief portrait studio on the beach...